OBAMA ADMINISTRATION PROPOSES TO FIX A NOTORIOUS SNAG IN IMMIGRATION LAW -NEW RULE WILL SPARE THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN CITIZENS FROM PROLONGED SEPARATIONS FROM IMMIGRANT SPOUSES AND CHILDREN

The long-awaited change now proposed by immigration officials will benefit U.S. citizens who are married to or have children who are undocumented immigrants.  Thousands will no longer be separated from their loved ones. The change will encourage Americans to come forward to apply to bring their out of status family members into the legal system.

Undocumented immigrants married to or who are children of American citizens are allowed to become legal residents by obtaining permanent resident status. The law requires most of them who are out of status to return to their home countries in order to receive their legal visas. Once they leave United States, they are automatically barred from returning to the U.S. for at least three years and often for a decade, even if they are fully eligible.  They have to obtain some ‘Waiver’ from these tough measures, if the immigrants can show that their absence can cause ‘extreme hardship’ to the United States citizen. This waiver is tough and time consuming, and very unsuccessful in a lot of cases, as a result of which the family is separated for years, until the waiver is finally approved. Several times this waiver is never approved, as a result of which the immigrants are permanently stranded and separated from their American families.

Knowing the hardship to get through this ‘Waiver’ with risks of separation from the loved ones, many undocumented immigrants and their families decide to live hiding and do not apply for any immigrant benefits, even if eligible. The USCIS now proposes to allow the immigrants to obtain a provisional waiver in the United States before leaving the country. This will assure them to depart knowing that they will certainly be able to return back to the United States.  The agency also seeks to streamline the process and cut down on the processing wait times.

The Director  of USCIS – Alejandro Mayorkas stated ‘the goal is to substantially reduce the time U.S. Citizen are separated from the spouse or child that would yield an extreme hardship”.

USCIS will publish a formal notice in the Federal Register that is preparing a new regulation governing these waivers.

This humane change is one example of the measures taken by the Obama Administration, which does not require the approval of Congress. This will ease the burdens on Americans and immigrant families deriving from dysfunctional and outmoded immigration statutes.

In the effort of having more and more undocumented immigrants to apply for legal immigration status, this is a fundamental step in enabling thousands of them who are married to U.S. Citizens who have not taken advantage of the existing waiver. This will change their lives, and unite them to their families.

THE PROPOSED ACT – H.R. 3012 – THE FAIRNESS FOR HIGH SKILLED IMMIGRANTS ACT

Highly skilled immigrants, particularly from India and China, are victims of the strict regulations set by the U.S. immigration policy relating to employment-based visas. The U.S. House of Representatives on 11/29/2011 passed H.R. 3012 – The Fairness for high Skilled Immigrants Act by a vote of 389-15 with no additional amendments. The bill has now moved to the Senate for consideration. It is likely to be approved.

This legislation targets elimination of country–by–country caps on visa availability to skilled workers for obtaining permanent resident status in United States. Once the bill is fully enacted eligible individuals may apply for permanent resident status on a first-come-first basis.

Currently 140,000 employment-based skilled worker green cards are available, and it limits availability to 7% of that allocation to each country. Countries like India and China, which is highly populated, receive an average of 3000 visas in this category annually. Calculating an average period, these countries have a wait list of approximately 65-70 years by the time the visas become available. The new bill will shorten the waiting time by eliminating the limit on the visas.

The Law Offices of Bryan Pu Folkes will keep you posted as more information becomes available. Hopefully, this bill will be enacted and will stop skilled immigrant workers from being forced to leave the United States due to immigration status.

THE U.S. CONSULATE IN MUMBAI RELOCATES

The U.S. Consulate in Mumbai moves to a new location at Bandra Kurla Complex after years of operation at the Lincoln Center, Breach Candy. This relocation facilitates 44 interview windows and reflects the expansion in U.S. India relations. U.S. Consul General – Peter Haas comments – ‘our new home reflects the overall trend of U.S. India ties. Our relationship with India is growing and modernizing, and our consulate must do the same.” Lincoln Houses shuts operations to public on November 15 and reopens on November 21 at the new Bandra Kurla Location – East Mumbai, Maharashtra 400051 India

Keep Ravi Ragbir in the US with his family and community!

Sign this petition today to help Ravi and his family!

Long time resident, community activist, father, and husband, Ravi Ragbir, faces permanent exile from his life in the US. A 15-year green card holder, Ravi has worked as an organizer to protect the rights of all immigrants, including through the New Sanctuary Coalition of New York City. But he is now at risk of deportation to Trinidad—without a single meaningful hearing in immigration court—because of a single, decade-old conviction.

Ravi experienced the worst of the deportation system. An immigration judge ordered him to be deported without considering any of the evidence of his character and strong community ties. Ravi was detained for years throughout his immigration case and was transferred to an immigration jail in Alabama, far away from his family and community.

 Upon release from immigration jail, Ravi rose to leadership in the immigrant rights
community. Through his work, Ravi met his current partner and wife, Amy Gottlieb, another community leader. They live in Brooklyn and spend the majority of their time in the New York/New Jersey area, where their family—including Ravi’s teenage daughter, Deborah—also lives.

Despite the overwhelming public support for Ravi to remain in the United States with the family and the community that so desperately needs him, he faces imminent deportation.

Please sign this petition to tell ICE to not deport Ravi!

Thank you! Grace Gleason has been Released from ICE Detention!

On October 10, 2011 we blogged about how you can support efforts to release Grace Gleason from ICE Detention.  Grace has a U.S. citizen husband, a U.S. citizen daughter, a son who is a U.S. lawful permanent resident and an elderly father who is also a U.S. lawful permanent resident.

Three thousand supporters signed a petition asking for Grace to be released and it worked.  Grace was released on Tuesday, October 18, 2011.

Thank you!

Dishonest Data on Immigration Cripples Honest Debate and Sensible Lawmaking

For years, data produced by restrictionist, anti-immigrant advocacy groups have permeated politics and policy. Today is no different. What’s alarming, however, is the ease with which politicians and lawmakers are using this dishonest data to support their restrictive positions on immigration.

Take the recent passage of HB 56 in Alabama. Sponsors of the bill are using flawed data produced by the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR) to defend the passage of the bill. Using FAIR’s numbers, they claim unauthorized immigrants in Alabama use public services to the tune of $280 million a year. In the media, these supporters fail (as does the media reporting on it) to cite where the numbers come from. Passing them off as “official” state data, the average person would assume that these numbers were crunched by Alabama’s own legislature or government agencies. However, this is simply not the case. In fact, Alabama legislators failed to produce a fiscal note enumerating the fiscal impacts of HB 56, so the only fiscal justification they had for this bill was flawed data from FAIR.

Strikingly, during the last few debates among GOP presidential aspirants, more than one candidate referenced data by FAIR and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), another extreme anti-immigrant research group. Michele Bachmann recently quoted FAIR data claiming the costs of unauthorized immigration to the U.S. were $113 billion dollars per year, with $82 billion being shouldered by states. This is the same study Alabama officials pulled their state data from and passed off as official data.

Explaining the basic flaws in FAIR’s reporting is actually simple: they exaggerate the costs associated with unauthorized immigrants while vastly undercounting their contributions. What’s most appalling about their “economic” analysis is how they include the costs of educating the U.S.-born children of immigrants and never credit back the productivity of these children when they grow into contributing adult citizens. FAIR also adds unsubstantiated costs derived from unsupported assumptions about the children of unauthorized immigrants. For example, FAIR assumes all children of unauthorized immigrants are using ESL programs and free and reduced price lunch programs. Finally, to exaggerate the costs as much as possible, FAIR vastly underestimates the contributions that immigrants make as consumers, workers, and taxpayers. This formula allows FAIR to make to make it look as if unauthorized immigrants cost more than they contribute.

Another recent reference to restrictionist data came from Mitt Romney and his staff, who quoted a CIS study which claims almost half the jobs created in Texas under Governor Perry went to unauthorized workers. Fortunately, these numbers were challenged by FactCheck.org, which noted that the report has been debunked in the Dallas Morning News by Pia Orrenius, an economist and immigration expert at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas—and by a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation who wrote an analysis critical of the CIS study.

No one is arguing that the drastic increase in unauthorized immigration over the past two decades is not an appropriate debate topic or that policy changes aren’t needed. However, we will never achieve real solutions unless we demand intellectual honesty, rather than pandering and platitudes, in debates on immigration. The data and research put forth by anti-immigrant groups, whose only solution is to deport them all, cannot be the basis for honest policymaking or policy discussion.

Photo by jypsygen.

Source:**Immigration Impact

Near End for Occupy Wall Street....

Occupy Wall Street has become a daily topic on our media sources and New York topics. The protesters at Zucotti Plaza have made Battery Park their new home, but as the four-week period of occupying has passed Mayor Bloomberg has announced that the park will shut down Friday, October 14 at 7 A.M. As a result some of  the "99%" are now cleaning the park themselves in effort to not shut down the protest. Their main concern is that once the Parks and Recreation crew is finished cleaning up protesters will not be allowed to bring back any kind of sleeping gear. In the end, this will terminate the protest partially.


Source:**New York Times